A “vile and evil” north-east fisherman has been fined after threatening to kill his MSP.
Aberchirder man William Curtis warned Stewart Stevenson to “remember what happened to Jo Cox” – two months to the day after the murder of the Labour MP.
His “cold, calculated threat” came as he demanded the Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP intervene in an issue he was angry about.
Curtis, 64, of Southview Terrace, had gone to a caravan in his home village on August 16, 2016, where the politician was holding a surgery.
The fishing boat skipper harangued Mr Stevenson about a fishing firm which he alleged had underpaid Romanian workers.
He claimed he was being persecuted by the firm – which he believed to be connected to the family of MP Angus MacNeil – and demanded Mr Stevenson do something about it.
Setting out his intent to carry out a citizen’s arrest, he told the MSP he “was under a legal obligation to act”, Sheriff Robert Dickson said in his sentencing statement at Peterhead Sheriff Court yesterday.
“You told him that he had 14 days to do so and added: ‘Remember what happened to Jo Cox’.”
Mother-of-two Mrs Cox, 41, was shot and stabbed by neo-Nazi Thomas Mair in her Batley and Spen constituency days before the EU referendum.
The killing helped shine a spotlight on the abuse directed at politicians and demands for action to better protect them.
Sheriff Dickson said the threat was “exceptionally alarming” because Mrs Cox’s death “was at that time so fresh in everyone’s memory”.
Imposing a fine of £2,600 on Curtis, he said: “This was not an outburst made in temper.
“It was a cold, calculated threat made in a calm tone and was all the more terrifying because of this.
“It was made deliberately in order to cause fear and alarm and it did so.”
He added: “Any form of death threat is a very serious matter.
“In this case you made it to a politician knowing that the reference to the murder of Jo Cox would be exceptionally alarming because she had been stabbed by a disgruntled constituent because of her political work.
“Speaking of the death of somebody who appears to have been a highly-respected and hard working MP as a method of threatening other politicians was vile and evil.
“The courts have a duty to make it clear to you and others who try to frighten, terrify or alarm others that such behaviour will never be acceptable. Everybody is entitled in this country to live free of fear for their safety and for the safety of others.”
